The PSETA Sector Skills Plan Update for 2016-2017 - (PSETA) FINAL FOR SUBMISSION TO DHET
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The PSETA
Sector Skills Plan
Update for 2016-2017
Public Service Sector Education and Training Authority
(PSETA)
FINAL FOR SUBMISSION TO DHET
August 2015
PSETA Sector Skills Plan Update 2016/17 2
Contents List of figures and tables ............................................................................................................ 4 Acronyms ................................................................................................................................... 5 Executive Summary .......................................................................................................... 6 Chapter 1: Sector Profile ................................................................................................... 8 1.1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 8 1.2. Scope of coverage ............................................................................................................ 8 1.3. Key role players.............................................................................................................. 10 1.4. Economic performance .................................................................................................. 11 1.5. Labour market profile .................................................................................................... 12 Chapter 2: Key Skills Issues ............................................................................................. 19 2.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 19 2.2. Change drivers ............................................................................................................... 19 2.3. Alignment with national strategies and plans ............................................................... 23 Chapter 3: Extent of skills mismatches ............................................................................ 25 3.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 25 3.2. Extent and nature of demand ........................................................................................ 25 3.3. Extent and nature of supply .......................................................................................... 30 3.4. Identification of scarce skills and skills gaps .................................................................. 40 Chapter 4: Sector Partnerships ....................................................................................... 44 4.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 44 4.2. Existing partnerships...................................................................................................... 44 4.3. New partnerships........................................................................................................... 46 Chapter Five: Skills priority actions ................................................................................. 48 5.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 48 5.2. Findings from previous chapters ................................................................................... 48 5.3. Recommended actions .................................................................................................. 50 References ............................................................................................................................... 56 Appendix One: Description of the Major Occupational Classification/Groups used in Persal 58 Appendix Two: Note on data sources ...................................................................................... 60 PSETA Sector Skills Plan Update 2016/17 3
List of figures and tables
Figure 1: Graduates from all public higher education institutions in South Africa, 2009-2013
.......................................................................................................................................... 32
Figure 2: PSETA approach to identifying priority skills for the public service ......................... 49
Table 1: Organisations reporting only to PSETA ........................................................................ 9
Table 2: Sector contribution to Gross Domestic Product, 2015 .............................................. 11
Table 3: Formal employment by the public, private and non-profit sectors, 2015 ................ 12
Table 4: Number of people employed in the public service under the Public Service Act, 2015
.......................................................................................................................................... 13
Table 5: Employment in the public service under the Public Service Act by gender, 2015 .... 13
Table 6: Employment in the public service under the Public Service Act by race, 2015 ......... 14
Table 7: Years of service for those employed under the Public Service Act, 2015 ................. 15
Table 8: Public service employment by Persal Major Occupational Category, 2015 .............. 16
Table 9: Public service employment by Persal Major Occupational Category, for Public
Servants employed under the Public Service Act, 2015 .................................................. 16
Table 10: Persal major occupational category by race for the public service, 2015 ............... 17
Table 11: Qualification levels of personnel employed in local, provincial and national
government, 2015............................................................................................................ 18
Table 12: Change in number of people employed in the Public Service, 2012 to 2015.......... 20
Table 13: Reasons for officials leaving the Public service over the 2014 to 2015 period ....... 21
Table 14: Vacancy rates and numbers in the public service per Persal Major Occupational
Category, 2015 ................................................................................................................. 25
Table 15: Vacancy rates and numbers in the public service per Persal Unit Occupational
Category, for those employed under the Public Service Act, 2015 – showing vacancies
of more than 5% or more than 10 personnel .................................................................. 26
Table 16: Graduates at all Higher Education Institutions in South Africa, 2013 ..................... 33
Table 17: Number and percentage of students in public and private TVET college who wrote
and passed by qualification type, for 2011, 2012 and 2013............................................ 34
Table 18: List of scarce and critical skills ................................................................................. 42
PSETA Sector Skills Plan Update 2016/17 4Acronyms
CESM Classification of Educational Subject Matter
CETA Construction Education and Training Authority
CHE Council for Higher Education
CIP Compulsory Induction Programme
COGTA Department of Cooperative Government and Traditional Affairs
DHET Department of Higher Education and Training
DIRCO Department of International Relations and Cooperation
DPME Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation
DPRU Development Policy Research Unit
DPSA Department of Public Service and Administration
DTI Department of Trade and Industry
ETDPSETA Education, Training and Development Practices Sector Education and
Training Authority
FASSET Finance, Accounting, Management Consulting and other Financial
Services Sector Education and Training Authority
GSETA Forum Government Sector Education and Training Authority Forum
GTAC Government Technical Advisory Centre
Home Affairs Department of Home Affairs
HEMIS Higher Education Information Management System
HR Human resource
HRD Human resource development
IDMS Infrastructure Delivery Management System
INDLELA Institute for National Development of Learnerships Employment Skills
and Labour Assessments
MPAT Management Performance Assessment Tool
NC(V) National Certificate (Vocational)
NDP National Development Plan
NPC National Planning Commission
NQF National Qualifications Framework
NSC National Senior Certificate
NSDS National Skills Development Strategy
OCPO Office of the Chief Procurement Officer
OFO Organising Framework for Occupations
PALAMA Public Administration Leadership and Management Academy
PARI Public Affairs Research Institute
PSC Public Service Commission
PSETA Public Service Sector Education and Training Authority
SCM Supply chain management
SETA Sector Education and Training Authorities
SIPs Strategic Integrated Projects
SMS Senior Management Service
SSP Sector Skills Plan
StatsSA Statistics South Africa
TVET Technical and Vocational Education and Training
WSP Workplace Skills Plan
PSETA Sector Skills Plan Update 2016/17 5Executive Summary
The Public Service Sector Education and Training Authority (PSETA) is responsible for the
development of “transversal” skills across the public service (such as administration,
management, policy development and so forth), as well as for skills development in
functions undertaken exclusively by the public service (such as diplomacy).
PSETA’s Sector Skills Plan (SSP) builds on the foundations established in the previous two
SSPs, in which a clear approach was developed for identifying and prioritising skills and
training needs in the public service. This approach has been workshopped with the sector,
and was presented and discussed at a recent national skills colloquium hosted by PSETA in
March 2015. The approach highlights that skills development priorities cannot be identified
simply from an analysis of the scarce skills and competency gaps of individual employees, if
we are to develop the state capabilities called for in the National Development Plan. The
approach uses organisational performance as the lens to thematise skills needs: a priority
skill is one that will make the biggest difference to the performance of the public service.
The SSP draws on primary research on sector specific skills issues, analysis of major
government policies and their implications for skills planning, on quantitative analyses of
relevant databases (Persal in particular) and on secondary literature. Furthermore, PSETA
has undertaken a series of stakeholder engagements and case studies in a small sample of
departments to triangulate the findings from the quantitative data analysis and the findings
from an engagement with the literature. The identified priority skills were presented to the
sector in March this year. PSETA’s approach for identifying its priority skills is summarised in
the following figure:
Framework
Understand the nature of the South African state
Understand the drivers of organisational performance in the post-apartheid period -
Which competencies have been linked to successful turnarounds? Which competencies
are key to organisational development?
Consideration of PSETA’s mandate and focus on transversal skills
Identify state capabilities needed to implement the National Development Plan
Iden fy par cularly cri cal skills emerging from policy developments
and major state projects
Use quantitative data where
available, qualitative sector
Prioritise skills that are most needed to improve studies and studies which
organisational performance to act as a analyse the institutional
“foundation” for the competencies above challenges to improved
service delivery and
accountability
PSETA Sector Skills Plan Update 2016/17 6In summary, PSETA will prioritise development of the following state capabilities
(interventions to support any priorities identified in the NDP Chapter 13 will also be
considered):
1. Professional and technical competencies, through a focus on support for the Strategic
Infrastructure Projects;
2. Development of more operationally inclined and skilled management;
3. Improve technical competencies in Supply Chain Management (SCM), including contract
management;
4. Improve competencies in Human Resource Development (HRD) and Management
(HRM). With regards to HRD in particular, this will include a focus on improving
departments’ competencies to provide training through e-learning and improving their
competencies to support work integrated learning and bridging into work.
Broadly, these priorities will be supported through the following mechanisms:
1. Work with relevant central government ‘champions’ of the competencies (the Chief
Procurement Officer in the case of procurement, the Department of Public Service and
Administration in the case of HRD etc.) to ensure alignment of training across the public
service and to more precisely identify the mechanisms through which improved
competencies can best be supported;
2. Support training providers (especially public providers) to develop more relevant and
improved quality curriculum to address ‘demand-supply’ mismatches;
3. Use the discretionary grants as a mechanism to encourage departments to pool
resources, align their training approaches and support the development of the priority
skills outlined above;
4. Facilitate knowledge sharing between departments, academies and other stakeholders;
5. Market the public service as a career of choice to support the recruitment of top
graduates and artisans into the public service.
PSETA will use discretionary grants to support proposals for skills development that provide
priority skills, that can show some degree of training at scale, at reasonable per capita costs,
and which are in line with national approaches to skills development set by the national
“champions” of these state capabilities. Departments will be supported to collaborate with
other departments to maximize impact and efficiencies. Departments will also be
encouraged to co-fund these programmes to improve the chances of senior level
departmental support for the programmes. Through the strategic allocation of its
discretionary grants and working with departments to build these proposals, PSETA thus
aims to support a “change management” process in the skills development sector – moving
departments toward a more strategic approach to training.
The SSP proceeds as follows: Chapter One outlines PSETA’s scope of coverage, provides a
description of key role players and provides an overview of the public service labour market
profile. Chapter Two explores the major ‘change drivers’ impacting on skills demand and
supply in the public service and details the national strategies with relevance for skills
planning in the public service. Chapter Three provides a detailed analysis of skills demand
and supply. Chapter Four outlines PSETA’s partnerships in support of skills development.
Finally, Chapter Five summarises the findings from the previous chapters, outlines PSETA’s
priority skills and the plans for supporting these skills.
PSETA Sector Skills Plan Update 2016/17 7Chapter 1: Sector Profile 1.1. Introduction The South African State is the single largest employer in South Africa, now employing a quarter of the working population across national, provincial and local government, and state owned companies (Statistics South Africa, Quarterly Labour Force Survey, 1st Quarter, 2015). It covers a very wide range of sectors, and the nature of demand and supply for labour and skills is shaped by a far more complex set of processes than in the private sector: regional labour market dynamics intersect with policy and political priorities emerging from the executive. Furthermore, long institutional histories of the state shape the nature of organisational competencies. Indicators that can be used as rough proxies of demand and supply of skill in the private sector (such as vacancy rates and the price of labour) do not provide state managers with nearly sufficient information about the nature of scarce and critical skills in their organisations. In this context, developing a strategic approach for guiding the identification and prioritization of skills in the public sector is particularly important. The following Sector Skills Plan (SSP) builds on the foundations established in the previous two SSPs, in which a clear approach was developed for identifying and prioritising skills and training needs in the public service. This approach has been workshopped with the sector, and was presented and discussed at a recent national skills colloquium hosted by the Public Service Sector Education and Training Authority (PSETA) in March 2015. This approach is intended to guide the work of PSETA, as well as the work of skills development practitioners and senior managers in the public service. 1.2. Scope of coverage PSETA is responsible for skills development in the public service, that is, at national and provincial level. The Local Government SETA (LGSETA) is responsible for skills development in local government. PSETA’s scope of coverage only includes state employees employed in terms of the Public Service Act of 1994 (i.e. excluding teachers, military personnel and so forth). Many departments, such as education and health, have ‘dual reporting’; reporting to PSETA and a ‘line-function’ SETA, such as the Health and Welfare SETA. For departments for whom there is dual reporting to both PSETA and another line-function SETA, PSETA’s work concentrates primarily on skills development amongst the Senior Management Service (SMS)1 and other “transversal skills” (such as administration). PSETA is responsible for the development of transversal skills across the public service as well as for skills development in functions undertaken exclusively by the public service (such as diplomacy). Transversal functions include, for example, administration, management, 1 The SMS refers to all Directors, Chief Directors, Deputy Directors-General and Directors-General in the public service. PSETA Sector Skills Plan Update 2016/17 8
planning, legislation and policy development. PSETA therefore includes in its scope the
development of skills in areas that overlap with the focus of other line-function SETAs. For
example, whilst FASSET (SETA for Finance, Accounting, Management Consulting and other
Financial Services) is responsible for skills development in the area of financial management
generally, PSETA also has a mandate to develop skills in public service financial
management.
The table below shows the bodies reporting only to PSETA i.e. not covered by any other
SETA.
Table 1: Organisations reporting only to PSETA
Organisations only reporting to PSETA
Economic Development
Government Communication and Information Systems (GCIS)
Higher Education and Training
Home Affairs
International Relations and Cooperation
Labour
National Planning Commission
National School of Government
Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation
Public Enterprises
Public Service and Administration
Public Service Commission
Small Business Development
Trade and Industry
The Presidency
Women, Children and People with Disabilities
All provincial Offices of the Premier
All legislatures
Until fairly recently, state employers in the public service did not have to pay a levy to
PSETA. A 2012 policy directive issued by the Department of Public Service and
Administration (DPSA) aimed to set more stringent parameters for the spending of training
budgets. All departments are required to set aside a minimum of 1% of the total
department’s annual personnel budget for training and development of its personnel and
potential employees, of which 30% is to be paid to the departments’ respective SETA.
Where a department belongs to more than one SETA, the amount allocated to PSETA is to
be proportionate to the number of employees employed under the Public Service Act in that
department. However, the directive has yet to come fully into effect. Last year, some
departments paid these monies to PSETA. Historically, PSETA has thus received a very small
proportion of its income from member departments. In 2014 National Treasury, in
consultation with DPSA and the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET),
agreed to fund PSETA discretionary projects through a direct National Treasury allocation.
As of 2015/6, PSETA will receive R93 million to fund projects in line with its mandate, rather
than depending on government departments paying over skills levies for funding these
PSETA Sector Skills Plan Update 2016/17 9projects. This provides PSETA with some certainty on resource allocation for its programmes. However, the budget allocation has been insufficient for PSETA to meaningfully support the development of state capabilities needed to deliver the National Development Plan (NDP). PSETA will have to utilise its limited financial resources in an innovative and strategic way. 1.3. Key role players Each organ of state (departments and public entities) is responsible for identifying its skills gaps and training requirements. All organs of state submit Workplace Skills Plans (WSPs) to one or more of the SETAs and Human Resource Development (HRD) Plans to the DPSA. Apart from PSETA and the relevant line-function SETAs, there are a range of other statutory bodies mandated to play a role in skills development for public servants. DHET provides the overall policy framework for skills development, largely articulated in the National Skills Development Strategy III (DHET, undated). It also regulates the SETAs. The Government SETA Forum (GSETA Forum) comprises representatives of PSETA and 11 other SETAs of whom public sector bodies are members, and co-ordinates skills development for government employees. DPSA develops the HRD strategies for the public service and supports and monitors implementation of these strategies. The Public Service Commission (PSC) monitors and evaluates the performance of national and provincial departments, including providing commentary on public service capacity. Until recently, the Public Administration Leadership and Management Academy (PALAMA), was a national body that provided education and training for public servants. Much of PALAMA’s work involved facilitating the provision of training, as much of the training was outsourced to third party providers. PALAMA has been replaced by the National School of Government. The new school intends to provide far more of the training ‘in-house’ i.e. developing the state’s capacity to directly train its public servants. Some provinces have provincial academies, and a number of departments within the public service also have their own training academies (for example, the Department of Home Affairs (hereafter, Home Affairs) and the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO)). The Human Resource Development Council of South Africa (HRD Council) is a multi- stakeholder body comprising representatives from government, business, civil society, labour and the training and education sector. It was established in 2010 to “create an enabling, coordinated and integrated environment to focus on improving the human resource development base and skills of the South African people” (HRD Council website, 2013). Lastly, in November 2012, the Council requested the Minister for Public Service and Administration to coordinate an approach to skills development across the public service and local government aimed at the development of a more “capable state” as per the NDP (DPSA, 2013). The forum established to take this forward was the Public Sector Skills Committee (PSSC), which includes representatives from different provider and workplace PSETA Sector Skills Plan Update 2016/17 10
constituencies and includes the DHET, DPSA, the GSETA Forum, the National School of
Government and the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs
(COGTA).
1.4. Economic performance2
Government is the second largest contributor to GDP, behind the finance and business
services industry. In the first quarter of 2015, government services contributed 17% to
GDP.3 Changes in the contribution made by government therefore affect the economy as a
whole. Over the last year (first quarter 2014 to first quarter 2015), the government services
sector has grown, with growth averaging approximately 1,6%.4
Table 2: Sector contribution to Gross Domestic Product, 20155
Employee Percent
Finance 22%
Government services 17%
Trade 15%
Manufacturing 13%
Transport and communication 10%
Mining 8%
Personal services 6%
Construction 4%
Utilities 4%
Agriculture 2%
Total 100%
Source: First Quarter, Statistics South Africa (StatsSA), 2015.
Government is a major contributor to employment, employing 2,7 million people (25% of
the working population) (StatsSA, Quarterly Labour Force Survey, 2015), with 1.324 million
people currently employed in the public service (Persal, May 2015). Overall, the number of
people employed in the public service since last year declined by 0,15% (Source: Persal, May
2015) (though it increased in local government – see further details below and details on
growth and replacement demand figures in Chapter Two). Government is also important in
supporting the growth of the private sector, and thus in employment creation more broadly.
Whilst government has an impact on the functioning of the economy, the state of the
economy also has an impact on government; more specifically it has an impact on the size of
the budget available to departments to spend on goods and services, personnel budgets
and infrastructure. This in turn can have an impact on the resources available for skills
development. The National Treasury, concerned with low economic growth and rising
2
Given that the form and function of the public service is quite different from that of the private sector, not all
of the questions outlined in the DHET’s latest SSP Guidelines for Chapter One are relevant to the public
service, for example, questions related to the competitiveness of the sector. We deal with the public service’s
ability to compete with the private sector for skilled labour in the appropriate sections of the report.
3
In nominal prices. Source: Statistics South Africa website: http://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=4669
4
Own calculation from StatSA’s quarter by quarter data: http://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=4669
5
Figures rounded up.
PSETA Sector Skills Plan Update 2016/17 11government debt, has over the last couple of years instituted measures to contain and even reduce budget allocations to compensation of employees (i.e. wage bill) and other expenditure items: National Treasury notes that, “Funding for posts that have been vacant for prolonged periods has been targeted; capital project allocations that are projected to underspend have been reduced; and the budgets of the selected non-essential goods and services items are frozen at 2014/15 budget levels.” (National Treasury, 2015: iv-v). As yet, there has been no overall decrease in the size of the wage bill, and no necessary decrease in the allocation of funding to skills development in departments (i.e. 1% of personnel expenditure). National Treasury assumes departments' managements are better placed to decide where savings would least harm service delivery. Whether the managements cut training budgets depends largely on whether there are other areas they can cut easily and the extent to which they see training as a priority (interview with public sector economist Conrad Barberton, Cornerstone Consulting, July 2015). And as we will note further in the report, skills development initiatives do not receive the priority they deserve in many departments. To the extent that PSETA can assess training budgets from Treasury data, PSETA will monitor the effect of budget cuts on skills development over the next few years. 1.5. Labour and market profile6 As mentioned, 2.7 million people are employed by the state in South Africa – this includes employment by all levels of government including the legislatures (22% of employment) and state owned enterprises (3% of employment). There has been a slight reduction in the number of personnel employed in the national and provincial government – from 1.326 million last year to 1.324 million this year (source: Persal database, 2014 and 2015). Note that the Persal database does not include data on legislatures, and on only a handful of the public entities. PSETA is currently undertaking stakeholder engagements with a range of public entities and with legislatures to develop a stronger sense of their skills development needs in relation to those of the public service departments. Table 3: Formal employment by the public, private and non-profit sectors, 2015 Employee Number Percent A private enterprise 7 989 921 73,3% A private household 41 006 0,4% Government controlled business (e.g. Eskom; Telkom) 327 646 3,0% National, provincial and local government 2 413 848 22,1% Non-profit organisation 113 013 1,0% Do not know 19 855 0,2% Total 10 905 289 100,0% Source: Quarterly Labour Force Survey, 1st Quarter 2015, Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) 6 Given that the form and function of the public service is quite different from that of the private sector, we do not deal with the following questions outlined in the DHET’s SSP guidelines, namely, the number of business in the sector and the location / distribution of such businesses (employer profile). The SSP goes straight into a discussion of the labour market profile. PSETA Sector Skills Plan Update 2016/17 12
We now report on profile personnel employed under the Public Service Act. This group of
personnel comprises all those employed in the public service, except teachers, nurses and
medical practitioners, police and military personnel. 7 We report on this category (i.e.
“Employed under the Public Service Act”) because personnel such as teachers comprise
such a large proportion of the public service (in the case of teachers – 30%) that they
dominate the labour market profile of the public service. Remember that PSETA is not
responsible for the training of teachers, nurses and so forth.
The number of personnel employed under the Public Service Act is about half a million. The
figures per province and for national government are presented in the table below.
Table 4: Number of people employed in the public service under the Public Service Act, 2015
Province / national government Employees Per cent
National departments 195 786 36.7%
Kwazulu-Natal 62 940 11.8%
Gauteng 60 062 11.3%
Eastern Cape 52 112 9.8%
Limpopo 37 775 7.1%
Western Cape 33 199 6.2%
Free State 28 860 5.4%
Mpumalanga 27 167 5.1%
North West 24 784 4.6%
Northern Cape 10 993 2.1%
Total 533 678 100%
Source: Persal, May 2015.
Employment data by race and gender in the public service are provided below, showing only
those employed under the Public Service Act: more women than men are employed (55%).
There have been no significant changes in race, gender and disability statistics since last
year’s SSP Update.
Table 5: Employment in the public service under the Public Service Act by gender, 2015
Province / national government Male Female
Eastern Cape 42% 58%
Gauteng 44% 56%
Free State 45% 55%
North West 48% 52%
Western Cape 43% 57%
Mpumalanga 36% 64%
Kwazulu-Natal 44% 56%
7
Nurses and medical practitioners are employed under the Public Service Act, but the Health SETA focuses on
training for this group of personnel. This year we have included security officers who work for the various
departments (i.e. not military staff or police) in the group, “Employed under the Public Service Act”. This
accounts for the very small increase, from last year’s SSP, in the number of personnel recorded as employed
under the Public Service Act in the SSP.
PSETA Sector Skills Plan Update 2016/17 13Northern Cape 41% 59%
Limpopo 44% 56%
National departments 48% 52%
Total 45% 55%
n = 529 286. Source: Persal, May 2015.
Employment by race varies quite widely across the provincial governments.
Table 6: Employment in the public service under the Public Service Act by race, 2015
National / provincial African Asian Coloured White
Free State 88% 0% 3% 9%
Kwazulu-Natal 88% 8% 1% 3%
Northern Cape 55% 0% 40% 5%
Limpopo 99% 0% 0% 1%
North West 94% 0% 2% 4%
Eastern Cape 91% 0% 6% 3%
Mpumalanga 97% 0% 0% 3%
Gauteng 90% 1% 3% 6%
Western Cape 25% 1% 63% 12%
National departments 76% 3% 10% 12%
Total 81% 2% 10% 7%
n = 529 286. Source: Persal, May 2015.
One percent of those employed under the Public Service Act have some form of disability
(mirroring the wider population). 8 National government employs a slightly higher
proportion of people with disabilities than any of the provinces (1.3%).
As noted in above, PSETA’s support for skills development focuses on all occupations in
those departments reporting only to PSETA (i.e., those departments that do not also report
to a sector SETA such as education or health). In the case of those departments with dual
reporting, the focus is primarily on the SMS. As of May 2015, just under 2% of the public
service was employed in the SMS – approximately 9 600 personnel. Seventy two per cent of
the SMS is black, 6% are Indian, 8% are coloured and 14% are white. Fifty-nine percent of
the SMS is male, and 1.2% of the SMS has some form of disability.
The average age of public servants under the Public Service Act is 42 years. There is little
difference though in the average age of black and white personnel – these figures are 41
and 47 years respectively.
The average length of service of employees in the public service is 11.7 years (less than a
percentage point difference from last year), with 18% having joined the public service less
than three years ago. The average length of service of black personnel in the Public Service
is 11 years, and for white personnel is 20 years.
8
n= 523 985. Source: Persal, May 2015.
PSETA Sector Skills Plan Update 2016/17 14Table 7: Years of service for those employed under the Public Service Act, 2015
Years of service Frequency Percent
2 Years and less 94 407 17.8%
3 to 5 years 80 532 15.2%
6 to 10 years 140 807 26.6%
11 to 20 years 85 169 16.1%
More than 20 years 128 371 24.3%
Total 529 286 100%
Source: Persal, May 2015.
While the public service should ensure a constant stream of new recruits into the public
service, staff retention is important to ensure strong institutional memory. By way of
international comparison, in New Zealand the average length of service is 9,2 years; in the
United Kingdom it is 10 years; and in India the average length of service appears much
longer (exact statistics were hard to find).9 The South African statistic of 11,7 years is thus
average in international comparison. Yet a number of studies have pointed to the poor
development of institutional memory in many organisations of the public service – this is
not caused by people leaving the public service, but due to high rates of mobility between
departments in the public service (see the PSC report, 2008 for example). Average turnover
rates in the public service (mobility) computed from the latest Persal data shows that
turnover was 9% over the 2014 to 2015 period – though with variations between
departments and occupations, and this is the rate for turnover for just one year. As we will
discuss in Chapter Two, high turnover rates at the senior management level in some
departments have had negative consequences for organisational performance – and
specifically for enabling mentorship of new and junior recruits to the organisation. We turn
now to data on the occupational categories of public service employees.
Note on the classification of occupations in the Persal database
Persal does not yet capture occupational data per the OFO categories. OFO stands for Organising
Framework for Occupations. It is a coded occupational classification system for reporting and
monitoring skills demand and supply in the South African labour market, and for coordinating the
development of occupational qualifications. Appendix One provides the description of the ‘Major
Occupational’ categories (i.e. the occupational categories used by Persal).
At an aggregate level (major occupational category) mapping the Persal categories to the OFO
‘major groups’ can be very crudely done (see Appendix One). Mapping the old categories still used in
Persal to the OFO system at a detailed level is a major undertaking requiring a dedicated budget and
team that includes relevant expertise from Persal.
The first table below shows data for the whole Persal database (i.e. also including those not
employed under the Public Service Act). School educators make up nearly a third of those
employed in these two spheres of government.
9
New Zealand, source:: https://www.ssc.govt.nz/hrc-survey-2013); United Kingdom:
http://www.guardianpublic.co.uk/workplace-reform-leadership); India:
http://darpg.gov.in/darpgwebsite_cms/document/file/civil_services_survey_2010.pdf
PSETA Sector Skills Plan Update 2016/17 15Table 8: Public service employment by Persal Major Occupational Category, 2015 Major occupational category Number of employees Percent Educators 395 969 31,8% Professionals and managers 225 597 18,1% Administrative office workers 177 108 14,2% National security and custodian personnel 139 405 11,2% Elementary occupations 128 924 10,3% Social natural technical and medical sciences and support 83 354 6,7% Service workers 51 635 4,1% All other occupations 15 180 1,2% Technicians and associated professionals 11 127 0,9% Craft and related trades workers 8 501 0,7% Drivers, operators and ships crew 7 127 0,6% Information technology personnel 2 210 0,2% Total 1 246 137 100% Source: Persal, May 2015. The next table shows data only for employees under the Public Service Act. Administrative office workers make up a third of the public servants employed under the Public Service Act, and professionals and managers account for 22% (remember that 2% of the half a million public servants under the Public Service Act are employed in the SMS). 10 Table 9: Public service employment by Persal Major Occupational Category, for Public Servants employed under the Public Service Act, 2015 Major occupational category Frequency Percent Administrative office workers 177 108 33.2% Elementary occupations 128 924 24.2% Professionals and managers 116 232 21.8% Service workers 51 635 9.7% Social natural technical and medical sciences and support 17 740 3.3% All other occupations 15 180 2.8% Craft and related trades workers 8 501 1.6% Technicians and associated professionals 7 283 1.4% Drivers, operators and ships crew 7 127 1.3% Information technology personnel 2 210 .4% National security and custodian personnel 1 738 .3% Total 533 678 100% Source: Persal, May 2015. 10 The increase in the percentage of service workers relative to other occupations since last year (from 3% to 9%) is accounted for by the inclusion of security personnel (not military or police) into the category “Employed under the Public Service Act”. Last year this group was omitted from this category. PSETA Sector Skills Plan Update 2016/17 16
Occupation statistics are shown by race below. A higher proportion of white people are
represented in the ‘Craft and related trades workers’ category (artisans) than in other major
occupational categories. This is most likely as a result of the legacy of job reservation laws
under apartheid. There is also a remaining higher proportion of white people in the category
‘Professionals and managers’: whilst over a third of white personnel and third of Indian
personnel under the Public Service Act are in the category ‘Professionals and managers’, the
percentage for African and Coloured personnel is far lower at 21% and 18% respectively. A
closer look at the category shows that this is primarily accounted for by
underrepresentation of black personnel in the professions, rather than in management.
Table 10: Persal major occupational category by race for the public service, 2015
Major occupational category African Asian Coloured White
Administrative office workers 32% 42% 35% 40%
Elementary occupations 26% 8% 25% 5%
Professionals and managers 21% 32% 18% 36%
Service workers 9% 10% 13% 10%
Social natural technical and medical sciences and
support 4% 2% 3% 1%
All other occupations 3% 0% 1% 1%
Drivers, operators and ships crew 1% 1% 1% 0%
Craft and related trades workers 1% 2% 1% 3%
Technicians and associated professionals 1% 1% 1% 2%
Information technology personnel 0% 1% 1% 1%
National security and custodian personnel 0% 0% 0% 1%
Total 100% 100% 100% 100%
Source: Persal, May 2015.
There is a higher proportion of women than men in the category ‘Professionals and
managers’ (55% versus 45% respectively). However, many of the broad occupational
categories still reflect the gendered division of labour. The very large majority of personnel
in the categories, ‘Drivers’, and ‘Craft and related trades workers’ are male. There are more
women in the category, 'Social, natural, technical and medical science personnel’ and more
women (68%) in the category ‘Administrative office workers’.11
There is a substantially higher proportion of disabled personnel employed in the category
‘administrative office workers’ than those who do not have some form of disability, and a
slightly higher proportion of disabled personnel in the category, ‘professionals and
managers’. A slightly lower proportion of disabled personnel are employed in all other
occupations, and a far lower proportion in the category, ‘Elementary occupations’ – many of
the jobs in this category involve manual labour. 12
PSETA focuses primarily on support to develop capacity in transversal skills, such as
administration, management, planning, legislation and policy development and so forth.
11
n = 529 286. Source: Persal May 2015.
12
n = 529 286. Source: Persal May 2015.
PSETA Sector Skills Plan Update 2016/17 17Therefore most of its ‘target’ employees are those in the categories ‘Professionals and managers’ and ‘Administrative office workers’. The 2015 Persal statistics show that PSETA’s constituent employees, i.e. all personnel in departments reporting only to PSETA and personnel in administrative and managerial occupations in SETA with dual reporting, constitute about 280 000 people, 62% who are in the category ‘Administrative office workers’, and 33% who are in the category ‘Professionals and managers’. (Note: This later occupational category is far wider than the Major OFO category ‘Clerical support workers’. ‘Administrative office workers’ include administrative personnel such as secretaries, filing clerks, database operators, as well as personnel undertaking more senior tasks – including the formulation of policies, regulations and procedures of an administrative nature, as well as including diplomats. It therefore includes personnel who are classified in the Major OFO categories ‘Managers’, ‘Professionals’ and ‘Technicians and Associate Professionals’.) The accuracy of Persal data on the qualifications of current public servants is not reliable. For this reason we draw on Statistics South Africa (StatsSA)’s Quarterly Labour Force survey. Unfortunately the survey data does not distinguish between local, provincial and national government. Results are shown below. Nineteen percent of people employed in the public sector (excluding state owned enterprises) have a higher education degree. Twenty-six percent do not have Grade 12. Given the data constraints, we are not able to link the qualification levels to the kinds of occupations or job profiles personnel occupy in the public service. We discuss the issue of appropriate skilling for the public service further in Chapter Three of this SSP. Table 11: Qualification levels of personnel employed in local, provincial and national government, 2015 Qualification level Number of employees Percent Primary school and less 204 234 8% Grade 9 and below 139 684 6% Less than Grade 12 278 776 12% Grade 12 722 986 30% Certificate/diploma 593 499 25% Certificate/diploma without grade 12 20 628 1% Bachelors 290 856 12% Honours 103 781 4% Master and above 42 712 2% Do not know 14 576 1% Other 2 117 0% Total 2 413 848 100% Source: StatsSA, Quarterly Labour Force Survey, 1st Quarter 2015. In conclusion, PSETA is responsible for skills development in national and provincial government, with a focus on the development of transversal skills. The sector profile outlined in the chapter above shows that PSETA’s work covers a very broad range of sectors, from skills development of public financial managers in DIRCO, to the development of policy analysis skills in the Department of Water Affairs. This broad scope of coverage therefore requires a very careful, strategic response from PSETA in order to optimise its contribution to skills development. PSETA Sector Skills Plan Update 2016/17 18
Chapter 2: Key Skills Issues
2.1. Introduction
The following chapter explores the major factors impacting on skills demand and supply in
the public service. It then details the national strategies with relevance for skills planning in
the public service.
2.2. Change drivers
Broadly, the major factors impacting on skills demand (number and type of skills demanded)
in the South African public service are:
Changes in the size of the public service due to changes in the size of the population, the
rate of retirement of public servants from the administration (replacement demand) and
so forth;
New policy directions and priorities initiated by government can have an impact on the
number of people employed and the skills demanded in the public service;
The organisation of the state and the service delivery models through which the state
chooses to deliver services and structure its operations will have implications for which
kinds of capacities the state needs to develop;
Changes in the nature of politics as it affects the organisation and staffing of
departments;
Finally, the capacity of HR (Human Resource) and HRD units in the public service will
shape the extent to which skills needs and gaps are appropriately identified.
Improvements or a decline in this capacity will affect the nature of skills demanded. The
capacity of HR and HRD units is especially important in the case of the public service (as
opposed to the private sector): the public service cannot rely on ‘price signalling’
mechanisms to indicate the need for changes in its business operating models or skills
profile of its workforce to the same extent that the private sector can.
Broadly speaking, changes in the supply of skills to the public service are affected by:
Changes in the formal education landscape (changes in Higher Education and other post-
schooling institutions and curricula for example) including improvements or a decline in
the quality of training and education provided in qualifications relevant to the public
service;
Shifting perceptions and preferences of those entering the formal education system and
the labour market (for example, which courses and occupations are more attractive to
learners and employees?) – this includes perceptions of the advantages and
disadvantages of working in particular positions in the public service. Currently, the
public service is not effectively competing with the private sector for the best graduates
and skilled personnel (in the professions and management positions);
Changes in the criteria for entry into positions into the public service and wider
recruitment and retention strategies in the public service;
Broad labour market dynamics: changes in the demand and supply for labour in the
wider labour market will also tend to affect the supply of skills to the state.
PSETA Sector Skills Plan Update 2016/17 19The nature of the ‘demand drivers’ just outlined means that good skills planning for the public service requires an understanding of the institutional context in which departments operate. We provide a very schematic outline of some of this context in the section below. Before doing this, we provide a brief description of growth and replacement demand in the public service – growth demand refers to new appointments to the public service i.e. new personnel demanded over and above those needed for replacing existing staff that leave the public service; and replacement demand refers to the demand for new capacity created by staff exiting the public service. The purpose of estimating these figures is to provide the broad parameters for planning and budgeting for the number of people that will have to be skilled and recruited over a given period. As noted in Chapter One, the number of employees employed in the Public service (national and provincial government) has decreased very slightly over the last three years (i.e. the years for which PSETA has been analysing Persal data). There was also a slight decrease in personnel employed under the Public Service Act for the last two years running. Table 12: Change in number of people employed in the Public Service, 2012 to 2015 Year Number of employees Percentage change per annum 2012 1 331 729 - 2013 1 331 154 -0,04% 2014 1 326 320 -0,36% 2015 1 324 228 -0,15% Change from 2012 to 2015 Decrease of 7501 personnel -0,5% Source: Persal, 2012 to 2015. Vacancy rates are presented and explored in Chapter Three: theoretically, should these vacancies be filled, they would see an increase in the size of the public service. The mean vacancy rate for the public service calculated from Persal data sits at 11,4%. However, not all vacancies are necessarily vacancies that departments wish to fill: changes in departmental organograms are not always reflected immediately in the Persal database (i.e. some vacancies are posts no longer needed). (The DPSA issued a Directive in June this year reminding departments that the Medium Term Expenditure Framework 2014-2019 commits departments to keep their vacancy rates to no more than 10%). The drivers of replacement demand include the retirement of existing public servants, attrition of staff due to illnesses and death, emigration, dismissals, and staff resigning to take up positions outside the public service. Over the 2014 to 2015 period, the total replacement demand for the whole of the public service (i.e. including teachers), was 5,5% of the Public Service (calculated from Persal, 2015). Unfortunately we do not have this data specifically for those personnel employed under the Public Service Act only – this figure and the figures in the table below are for the whole of national and provincial government. Whilst replacement demand is not especially high, those who leave may take with them valuable expertise and institutional memory. As we have mentioned, institutional memory can also be lost through high turnover of staff from one sector or department in the public service to another. PSETA Sector Skills Plan Update 2016/17 20
Table 13: Reasons for officials leaving the Public service over the 2014 to 2015 period Reason for leaving Percent of total exits Resignation (including resignation due to ill-health) 52,7% Retirement 30,4% Deceased 7,7% Contract expired and not renewed 3,0% Other 2,5% Dismissal or resignation with criminal charges 1,8% Discharged for Ill-health 0,9% Change in nature of post, privatisation etc 0,4% Transfer to another state institution 0,3% Left without notice 0,2% Total 100% Source: Persal, May 2015. The figures above highlight the importance of retention and recruitment strategies, and of succession planning. Whilst there is a ‘Career Planning and Management Policy’ for the public service – the National Planning Commission (NPC) has pointed to the need for far greater attention to succession planning and career development (NPC, 2012). This in turn is facilitated by stable senior management, amongst other factors. Growth and replacement demand projections can also be affected by changes in policy. We explore relevant policies in South Africa in the following section, Alignment with national strategies and plans. Internationally, changes in the size of the public service will also be affected by increases or decreases in the fiscus; and over the long term by changes in the population (the workforce in general has expanded with the expanding population); in the medium term it may be affected by changes in the models of public administration and changes in the way a ruling party sees the role of the state. For example, as a result of the adoption of New Public Management (NPM) and the consequent outsourcing and privatisation of certain government services, the proportion of people employed in government in the United Kingdom in 2013 was at its lowest in forty years (Cribb et al, 2014). These changes are not simply as a result of technocratic decisions, by are affected by political and normative ideas about the appropriate role of the state in society – this affects the size and organisation of the public service and thus the nature of the skills the state demands, develops or weakens. In the late 1990s South African too adopted NPM as the model of public administration. The first set of changes under NPM were made in the late 1990s, and then further changes from about 2003, primarily in the implementation of a decentralised model of state procurement. NPM has involved a number of changes to the structure and operations of the state, in addition to the major changes made in the transition from apartheid to democracy. In this regard, in 1994 the democratic government in South Africa inherited a public sector suffering from decades of under-investment and deliberate neglect of systems in many parts of the state that had been responsible for providing services to black South Africans. Yet the legacy of administrative and operational weakness in government departments was not always adequately understood and catered for in the post-apartheid period when new models of service delivery were introduced. The Public Service Act of 1994 formally unified PSETA Sector Skills Plan Update 2016/17 21
the separate administrations of the homelands and ‘Own Affairs’ departments into a unified government administration. In the first two years of the African National Congress’s first term of office it focused on the task of integration, (Kuye, 2006: 294-295) designing new administrative models, developing policies, incorporating staff, processes and systems. The pace of change in government organisations was extremely rapid, and in many instances organisations were set up from scratch. This was done at the same time as government was beginning to rapidly expand the provision of services to black South Africans. Stable and effective operational routines often did not have time to establish in this context. Much of the hope for establishing new operational routines and systems was placed on the newly established SMS. The SMS has grown from an initial staff component of about 1 500 people in the late 1990s to just over 9 000 today. In relation to twenty years ago, departmental managers now need a wider set of competencies – they are not only expected to implement decisions made by central government departments, but to develop policy and systems for service delivery. However, when it comes to service delivery or the implementation of plans and strategies, many departments are found wanting (see the National Planning Commission’s Diagnostic for example, 2011). Often basic operational and administrative processes are poor, and/or not well designed in relation to the mandated outcomes, whatever the specific area.The SMS has also struggled to fill key positions and to retain its staff (PSC, 2011; Chipkin, 2011). The reasons for this are complex, but in some departments it has impacted on organisations’ capacity to train and develop operational and technical skill. This brief background history has been provided to underscore the following point with relevance for skills planning in the public service: skills are developed (or the development of skills is constrained) within a broader organisational and institutional context. Despite the challenges outlined above, a number of departments in the public service are well functioning organisations able to deliver on their organisational mandate and staffed by personnel who have a strong professional ethos. Recent studies of the turn-around strategy in Home Affairs have highlighted how successes of the department have come through stabilising the management echelon. Further, attention was also paid to the administrative and managerial challenges of service delivery, and developing effective training in this regard (Mkhize, 2011). What drove institutional performance, in other words, was a management cadre focused on operational and administrative details. Strong technical and strategic expertise in contract management and other supply chain management (SCM) functions was also developed. A recent report by the Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI) notes that, “Service delivery in South Africa is decreasingly performed directly by government administrations and increasingly performed by private companies which tender for this role. The role of public servants has changed from that of administration to that of managing contracts.” (Brunette et al, 2014). National Treasury data shows that 42% of the South African government’s budget is now spent through procurement (a figure which is relatively high by international standards) (Brunette et al, 2014). Effective and transparent SCM has been fundamental to service delivery given the current model of public administration. PSETA Sector Skills Plan Update 2016/17 22
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